This invention relates to a safety device for use in combination with a bicycle wheel having a hub, a rim and spokes connecting the hub to the rim. Federal law requires, as a safety measure, that the wheels of bicycles be provided with reflectors facing outwardly from the sides of the wheels, to augment the conventional rear reflector, in order to make the bicycles more visible at night when exposed to light from the headlights of a motor vehicle approaching the bicycle obliquely or perpendicularly. The effectiveness of this measure depends upon the owners of motor vehicles properly maintaining the headlights and turning them on as soon as they are needed as daylight fades. Moreover, the reflectors may shine more brightly under the influence of light from one angle than from another. Consequently, the safety reflectors are not the best measure that one might desire.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,409 discloses systems of lights fastened to the wheels of bicycles. In one system, a plurality of individually battery powered lights is attached to the spokes of the bicycle wheels and the wheels are covered on each side with an apertured cover attached to the bicycle frame so that rotation of the wheels causes the lights to pass the apertures and be visible as flashing lights to the sides. In an alternative embodiment, the plurality of lights are powered by a single generator. The locating of the batteries along with the lights on the spokes at locations quite remote from the axis of the wheel has the disadvantage of increasing the moment of inertia of the wheel; insofar as concerns a generator, not all bicycles are so equipped. U.S. Pat. No. 2,788,763 provides a wig-wag bicycle light or light holder, which does not rotate with the wheel. U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,976 discloses a pedal mounted signal light. U.S. Pat. No. 2,630,480 discloses a signal light mounted on the hub of the wheel and which does not rotate with the wheel. U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,906 discloses a battery powered light for an automobile hub cap. Being located at the center of rotation of the wheel, the light does not move along a path circumscribing a circle about the axis of the wheel. The advantage of such a path of movement of the light would be that it would make the light much more conspicuous. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,947,070; 3,879,089 and 3,820,852 are merely representative patents disclosing various reflectors for bicycle wheels.
It is an object of the invention to provide a safety light for mounting on the spokes of bicycles for visibility from the sides of the bicycle which avoids the aforementioned shortcomings characteristic of the prior art.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description thereof.